Oaklands Pigs - Sharing our Expertise
Clare & Robin welcome you to the Oaklands Pigs website
Oaklands Farm is a working farm on the Kent/East Sussex Border, near Tunbridge Wells.
We started keeping pigs over 25 years ago, mostly raising weaners for the freezer before starting breeding from our own stock.
We are not currently running any pig keeping courses.
In early 2005 we replaced our many assorted pigs with new pedigree saddleback breeding stock, the foundation of our saddleback herd today.
Apart from these, we have examples of some of the other traditional pigs, including Tamworths, Old Spots and Kune Kune. We have also kept Middle Whites, Welsh, Oxford Sandys, Berkshires, Large Whites, Landrace, Large Blacks and Mangalitzas in the past. With rising costs we have recently reduced the number of animals at the farm and now only keep one or two of each breed (Saddleback, Tamworth, Old Spot) as adult breeding stock.
So between us we have many years of experience of buying, keeping and breeding pigs, and offer friendly advice to those new to pig keeping, or those thinking of moving on to breeding pigs.
Here at the farm we have set up a number of different environments in paddocks, woods, and barns with an assortment of styles of fencing and numerous varieties of arks, so there is always something going on at the farm.
Being a small farm, we can take the time to discuss and help you choose your pigs, and give help and advice on setting up and all aspects of pig keeping.
For disease control purposes, we do not hire any boars from this farm, or accept sows for mating.
We are not able to offer any vet student or work experience placements, as there is very little maintenance required for our outdoor herd.
Latest News
Another Best in Show
Vera, our Saddleback Gilt, won another Best in Show at the Cranleigh Show on 3rd August. The pig numbers were down at the show as it had moved to the Saturday to avoid the London 100 mile cycle event, but this did mean that it clashed with another large pig show at Stoneleigh Park. Vera joined the grand parade of cattle and sheep in the main arena to collect her trophies, but hitched a ride in the groundsman’s trailer. Although Vera took the honours the rest of the team also did well with Oaklands pigs winning 3 out of the 4 classes and therefore having three of our pigs competing for the Best in Show slot.
Trio of awards at Singleton Rare Breed Show
We took three different breeds to the Singleton Rare Breed Show and won Best of Breed with all three of them. First up was GLADYS the Gloucester old spot (at the front of the picture). She came 2nd in a strong adult sow class and also took the award for Best Old Spot. Next up was TALLULAH the Tamworth in the July Gilt class. After entertaining the crowds with her usual run around the ring chased by her owner trying to catch her up, she took the Best Tamworth award.
Also in the July Gilt class was our Saddleback VERA, who won the class and was also awarded Best Saddleback. She then went on to win Reserve Traditional Breed Champion.
The weather was extremely hot and we had to pour water over several pigs in the show ring to ensure that they did not overheat. With all the marquee flaps open we managed to get a good breeze through the pig marquee. So all in all a good day out.